It’s started on Facebook. Don’t all great ideas?
Friends and novelist extraordinaire Susan Meissner and Katie Ganshert started breaking down the much ballyhooed Gilmore Girls revival, A Year In The Life.
We found ourselves speculating, longing for understanding and conclusion to these dynamic yet flawed fiction characters. Knowing our own feelings, we felt sure many of you felt the same way. So we share our insight and experiences as a way to solve our angst of that shocking ending.
We welcome your comments! This show is one to be discussed.
But be warned! SPOILER ALERT. Stop right here if you haven’t tuned into the Netflix series. Go. Watch. Come back.
My Gilmore Girls Experience
I met the Gilmore Girls way back in 2000 on the CW when my husband became captivated by the rapid, nuanced, and pop-culture laden dialog. Midseason he grew weary of the repartee, but I was hooked.
I stuck with the Gilmore Girls to the glorious, or to some, the bitter end. I’ve watched the entire series an additional three l times. I’ve laughed-out-loud, cried, shouted, and wondered what in the world the writers were thinking. But deep down, I’ve remained a GG devotee.
This new series answered a lot of our questions. We had a nice resolve with Luke and Lorelai, and Emily. But once again, Rory left us hanging. No, she left us dangling over the precipice by our finger tips.
Wha????!!
There was more lying, deceiving and moral ambiguity in Stars Hollow. And the “myth of Rory” grew larger than life. In Katie’s section, we’ll address this myth.
Be warned, this is a long post. But as Susan Meisser pointed out, you’ll find we’ve hit on all that might be vexing you after watching it.
First up, the lovely and brilliant Susan Meissner.
Thanks, Rachel. A bit of disclosure first. I’m not exactly a true GG devotee. I didn’t watch the series when it ran back in the day and I consumed all seven seasons in the span of three months.
I wanted to find out why there was so much hype about the reunion, and many good friends love The Gilmore Girls. Truth be told, I felt like I had missed out on something unique and wonderful.
After watching most of all those 150+ previous episodes (sometimes I fast-forwarded past the who-cares side stories) I’m still not a devotee, not like some. I can’t quite understand or embrace these characters’ community penchant for being dishonest and deceptive with each other and their parallel inability to forgive quickly and learn from their mistakes.
RACHEL: This is really great insight. I found some of these inconsistencies irritating and wondered if it was just the writer’s short cut to tension.
Still, I became emotionally invested and I wanted to see where the writers of the show would take the Gilmores nearly ten years after the last episode aired.
Here’s my take:
After finishing the last episode of A Year in the Life, I’m pretty sure there will be some who will be quite content with how the Gilmore Girls series was forever wrapped up, some will be likewise forever perplexed and some will be, like, “Nooooo!”
RACHEL: I’m one. I shouted, “I KNEW IT!”
KATIE: I was more like, “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?” In my head, at least. I couldn’t actually speak intelligible words for a good five minutes.
Without going into all the reasons why I am actually okay with what the writers decided to do, let me just say I’m one of those people who likes imagining what the future holds for characters I care about. I don’t always need an epilogue or a denouement or all the loose ends neatly tied up in a bow.
For example, I have always been satisfied with how Gone With the Wind ended. Did Scarlett get Rhett back? Well, did she? The reader is invited – has always been invited – to imagine what Scarlett was able to accomplish in the days and months and years after the book ended. The reader gets to pick the result. The result she wants for Scarlett. The result she wants for herself.
I think the same is now and endlessly true for the Gilmore Girls, specifically Rory Gilmore. The writers could have paired her up at the end with Logan and fully infuriated the Team Jess fans, or with Jess and massively disappointed the Loganites.
So they did neither. We viewers will choose. Do you want Rory to end up with Logan? She can. She can tell Logan she’s expecting his child (yes, it must be his then, and not the one-night-stand Wookiie’s). He will break off his engagement to Odette and he and Rory will at last be together.
If that’s you, just keep in mind that despite their obvious chemistry, Logan is a man who sleeps around on his fiancé. If you want her to end up with Jess, she can decide she doesn’t want to know if the child is Logan’s or not and can confide in Jess, who, despite what he said to Luke, clearly still loves her.
He can be the one to step in to take care of Rory and be the dad to the child she carries. Or Rory can go it alone like her mother did. This is after all, why she went to her father to find out if he had any regrets that she was raised only by her mother.
So you have three options. Three doors. Which does Rory choose? Well, that’s up to you. And I’m not unhappy that it is.
Rachel and Katie, what is your take on all of this?
RACHEL: Good assessment, Sooz. I’m the one who wants Rory with Logan. but there is a chance the baby is from the Wookee.
I think the Palladino’s left us hanging on purpose. We can write our own ending.
Katie: I’m with you! My assessment is coming up!
RACHEL HERE:
Let’s talk Team Logan vs Team Jess for a spell.
In order to have a fair discussion, we have to set aside all of our personal preferences. If you’re the bad-boy, leather wearing, motorcycle loving kind, forget that’s why you love Jess. The same thing if you go for the bad boy, preppy, Mercedes driving, yacht stealing, rich boy. Also, lay aside your moral prejudices. Both men have faults.
Who changed for Rory?
I have to give this to Logan. When Rory and Logan first hooked up, literally, he was honest with her. He didn’t want a girlfriend. But when Rory couldn’t take sharing him any longer, Logan stepped up and changed to be with her. Jess ran away. His changes never came from being with Rory but from plain old growing up.
Who caused Rory to change?
Logan introduced Rory to a new world. The world of the upper class that was part of her DNA. While Lorelai fled the DAR, the country club and Friday night cocktail parties, Emily and Richard brought Rory in. It was in this season that brand new opportunities opened up for her. Logan mentored and protected Rory through Yale. A life she chose. She pursued the Life and Death Brigade. She pursued Logan. Logan caused Rory to see herself as something beyond a book geek and small town girl.
Jess, on the other hand, confronted Rory in her dorm room, demanding she choose Yale or him. He selfishly wanted her to run away, leaving everything behind that she’d worked so hard to achieve. He ignored her most of her dreams, only seeing what he wanted. He wasn’t willing to change, preferring to draw her into his mapless world. He never understood or respected the country club aspect of Rory’s life.
Who encouraged Rory’s dreams?
Logan earns the highest points here. He was there for her that dreadful night the Yale Daily News almost didn’t go to press! He encouraged her as editor and as a writer. His nickname, Ace, spoke right to her passion and destiny. Logan’s family had the connections Rory wanted and needed—though she turned them down—to do what she loved. Logan understood the journalist in her.
Jess was not a part of Rory’s transformation. He never supported who she was becoming. I know Team Jess will say he encouraged her to write, even gave her the idea to write the Gilmore Girls book, but that’s just being a friend. I’ll give you he was that!
What did they have in common?
While Logan was not from a small town, he stood at the entrance to Rory’s move into a broader and higher class life. Logan and Rory had Yale, friends, and a similar social circle. His parents were friends with her grandparents. Jess understood the Stars Hollow Rory.
Sometimes. I recall him challenging her to get out of the backwards, hick place. Other than the love of books, Jess and Rory never seemed to have much in common.
Whom did Rory say she loved?
Logan.
Who said he loved her back?
Logan.
Whom did Rory pursue when she had a chance?
Logan.
When she met Jess at his coffee shop/bookstore/artist hangout, Rory had a chance to choose Jess. But she did not accept his subtle invitation to be with him. She wanted Logan. She’s always wanted Logan.
A question worth asking: Who has the best ABS? Logan! Come on … please.
Logan is Rory’s Luke
• Luke gets Lorelai’s snappy repartee and coffee addiction. Logan gets Rory’s. And banters back.
• Luke has always loved Lorelai. Logan has always loved Rory. Even though he’s engaged to Odette, there was a sense he wanted Rory to confess her love for him.
• Luke proposed to Lorelai. Logan proposed to Rory.
• Luke has a hard time expressing his feelings. Logan has a hard time expressing his feelings. Lorelai said, “I love you,” first. Rory said, “I love you,” first.
• Lorelai went from the country club to Stars Hollow to Luke.
• Rory went from Stars Hollow to the country club (Yale) to Logan.
• Luke has this odd loyalty to his family even though they drive him crazy.
• Logan has the same odd loyalty.
Jess is Rory’s Christopher
• Christopher was selfish, abandoning Lorelai to raise Rory alone. Same with Jess. He was selfish, angry, and abandoned Rory when things didn’t go his way.
• Christopher never really knew what he wanted to do or who he wanted to be. Same with Jess. Though both figured it out in the end.
• Christopher hated the country club set. Jess hated the country club set.
• Christopher understood Lorelai because they had a history. But he never knew how to take her where she wanted to go. Jess understood Rory wanted to spread her wings and fly, but not how to get her there.
• Christopher was the man who would always be in and out of Lorelai’s life. Jess is that same man to Rory.
• Christopher missed the monumental moments in Lorelai’s life. Jess missed Rory’s.
SUSAN: Rach, you almost have me thinking Rory and Logan are destined for each other. Almost. One thing still niggles at me. I will share what it is in the end. But let’s hear from Katie.
KATIE GANSHERT HERE: I, personally, think the end was a genius move. Because from now until Jesus returns, this will be the ongoing debate amongst Gilmore fans. Who does Rory end up with? Nobody gets to say they are unequivocally right (unless Amy comes out and gives us an answer, which would honestly make me quite sad).
As Susan says, we have three doors. Three possibilities. I’ve developed my own theory. But first, we must address the conundrum that is Rory.
As much as I loved the revival as a whole, I was mostly baffled by 32-year old Rory Gilmore. I never believed for a second that this is where we’d find her in her thirties. The girl who knew what she wanted to be since … forever? Driven, principled, type-A Rory? Yes, I know. She had her lost, aimless moments and her fair share of giant mistakes, but that was when she was barely twenty.
I mean, for real. What has she even been doing for the past ten years? Writing that article for the New Yorker?
I don’t really get it, and I think the foreignness of this new Rory makes our postulating all the more tricky, since we’re not really sure who she is anymore. With that said, let’s move on.
I have no idea why the words, “Mom, I’m pregnant” left my mouth so hugely agape. The entirety of the revival’s theme was the cyclical nature of our lives, and Rory falling pregnant outside of wedlock—faced with the same decision her mother was faced with—is very much cyclical. But shock me, it did.
Originally (once I picked my jaw up off the floor), I thought, “Logan is her Christopher.” And you know what? I was completely okay with that scenario. I’ve al ways been a big fan of Christopher.
I love the relationship he and Lorelei have. I love that no matter who Lorelei chooses, Christopher will always be a part of her life. If that was the role Logan was destined to fill, then that was okay. More than okay, actually. It seemed to really fit. Until I woke up the next morning with a niggling thought in my head.
All I knew was that I was delighted to finally see Christopher, and also, what aging potion has he been drinking?
RACHEL: Ha!
SUSAN: Right?! Christopher looked like he’d spent the last decade sipping coffee at the Fountain of Youth Café…
I kept returning to that scene—the one between Rory and Christopher. Unlike Rachel, I had no inkling that Rory was pregnant at the time. That scene kept budging up, front and center, in my mind.
I remember watching it, perplexed. Because up until that moment, Rory never struck me as a girl with daddy-issues. She seemed content with Christopher’s role in her life. Sure, their relationship had its ups and its downs, but never once did I think that Rory was in want of more. Lorelei was her everything. Then the scene unfolds, and suddenly, I see Rory in a different light.
RACHEL: Good insight. I think you’re right.
SUSAN: Oh, how very right you are. This scene changed everything for me but not until we three started talking about it.
Christopher keeps insisting that his lack of involvement was the way it was meant to be. Lorelei and Rory were “in the cards”. And all the while, Rory looks wholly unconvinced. That’s why the scene was so jarring to me. I remember thinking, “She doesn’t agree with him. Rory Gilmore doesn’t think her mom made the right choice.”
Without knowing yet that Rory was contemplating the future of her own child, the whole thing was a mind-scratcher. Why, at 32, is she all of a sudden doubting her mother’s decision? And this is where my theory comes in: It’s one thing for Lorelei to raise her child on her own. It’s another thing for Rory, who grew up without a father, to choose that same path.
Yes, the revival was about coming full circle. But coming full circle doesn’t mean Rory must turn into a carbon copy of her mother. In fact, I think the idea of her choosing a different path from her mother carries more poignancy. Rory can’t help but wonder, “What if?”
What if Lorelei wouldn’t have been so determined to do this thing on her own? Who knows! Maybe Rory wouldn’t be living at home at the age of 32, under the delusion that writing a book is somehow going to pay any of the bills.
I’m increasingly convinced that Rory is going to tell Logan. That Rory wants to tell Logan. Because love it or hate it, as you so eloquently say Rach, Rory loves Logan. And Logan (who is afraid to ask her for more, given her rejection at the end of S7) would never leave her to raise a kid on her own.
RACHEL: Agree! Rory is the only woman who caused him to change, to be stand-up. See my arguments for Logan to why I think he’d be a part of the baby’s life.
SUSAN: I’m still not convinced Logan is Rory’s one-and-only kindred soulmate. Nor even the father of this child. Must I remind you both of Rory’s totally-out-of-character one-night-stand? (A contrived plot detail to be sure, but one we can’t ignore.)
KATIE: Well, I don’t think it can be the wookie’s, as she would have been quite far along, given the timing of when it all happened. And she was drinking with Logan when the Life and Death Brigade appeared. I know Rory is not herself, but I don’t think she’d drink while pregnant. So … Logan’s baby.
This is the door I’m choosing to walk through.
In my happy place, the Rory and Logan ship will finally set sail. And this ship will not sink. But even if it did, “You jump, I jump, Jack.”
RACHEL: I’m with you walking through that door, Katie. Rory is the only woman Logan ever changed for and she seems to find him a constant “home base.”
SUSAN HERE:: Katie, you’ve nailed a point so perfectly; the one thing that makes me think that maybe there is a future for Rory that begins with a fourth door. Such thought-provoking commentary naturally leads to questions and ponderings!
Before we turn over the mike to you, dear readers, let’s have a short Q & A to set the stage for an even more lively comments section:
So, Katie and Rachel, I can see that you are both Team Logan fans. Does it concern you that Logan isn’t huge on fidelity? If he and Rory were to marry, what would this marriage look like in ten years? Or do you see them quasi-partnered but not married and therefore okay with occasional sleeps with other people?
RACHEL: I think that should be a concern for sure! But Logan and Rory’s affair points to the fact they still love each other. Odette doesn’t know what she’s up against. Logan has never been faithful to anyone BUT Rory. He sorta cheated on her once when they were “taking a break,” and he bitterly regretted it. So when it comes to Rory, Logan would be faithful. To be fair, they’re both dogs for cheating together on Odette. “Run, Odette, Run!!”
KATIE: Here’s the thing. It became obvious that his engagement to Odette wasn’t under any pretense of love. He called it the dynastic plan, or something like that. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to imagine that it was just as much a dynastic move on Odette’s side. Perhaps the two had an understanding. Maybe Odette had her own “Rory”. Still totally messed up, for sure. But it’s what Amy Sherman-Palladino gave us. And since Rory refuses to bring up marriage, since she never once (that we can see) asks Logan to leave Odette and be with her, gun-shy Logan isn’t going to be the one to push. Not after Rory’s rejection at the end of S7. I think Logan is capable of committing. I think he’s still hopelessly in love with Rory. With that said, did the entire cheating situation make me horribly uncomfortable? Heck to the yes. I didn’t like it one bit.
KATIE: What do you think, ladies? Did you find 32-year old Rory believable?
RACHEL: She was not believable. In fact, author great Susan May Warren and I were talking about Rory and felt she became younger as the show went on! She seemed more mature at 15 than at 32.
First, for a seasoned journalist her career should’ve been more established. After all she is THE Rory Gilmore. The “myth” of this girl who could do everything and be anyone she wanted never panned out on the screen. We’re told she’s brilliant and awesome and everyone loves her but when she playes out her life, she makes bad decisions, she chooses to be unanchored when the whole series she was the anchored GG.
She was the girl who edited the Yale Daily New and used the word “hubris” correctly on a Ivy League panel. But in this series, she seemed lost. Unsure. Went into interviews without confidence, unprepared.
She was supposed to be so busy she never lived in her Brooklyn apartment yet at the end of the day, she had no jobs, lead or connections. The crazy celebrity book she was working on couldn’t have been her only opportunity. I never really understood that story line OR why she constantly traveled to London.
I feel like the writers were never really ready to let Rory grow up. I also didn’t buy she wanted to live out of boxes 32. That’s not her personality. I get the writers doing that with her after college, but not “again” at 32.
I’d love more episodes seeing her raising her daughter and decided to MARRY Logan. Not another Lorelai story but one that creates a cohesive family like Emily and Richard.
SUSAN: This is a great question because it gets to the heart of why I think there might be a fourth door here. And that door is located in Christopher’s office.
You are absolutely right, Katie. Rory doesn’t leave that office satisfied with the answer her father gives her. She is troubled when he hands her the coffee (of course, there is coffee) at the beginning of this scene and she’s still troubled when she leaves.
His answer doesn’t give her the clarity she is desperate for and underscores why I am neither Team Jess or Team Logan or Team Rory solo. What I get out of this scene is that Rory clearly doesn’t believe she was meant to be raised without a father’s daily influence.
RACHEL: Sooz, so good. I’ll conceded this is a great door to examine!
SUSAN: Right. So Rory is wondering, as am I, if she would have made different choices if Christopher had had a more direct role in her life. Rory began to unravel for me when at 19 she lost her virginity to a married man. She continued to unravel, such that thirteen years later Yale-educated Rory is now homeless, unemployed, direction-less, alone, and having an affair with a man engaged to be married to someone else.
I barely recognize this Rory from the 15-year-old schoolgirl I met in Season One. And in Christopher’s office, she realizes she doesn’t recognize this woman either.
The fourth door could be that Rory will fall in love with the kind of man who will reconnect her to the woman she might have been if she’d had the fullness of a loving dad’s presence in her life. That man will be her husband and will partner with her in raising this child. That man will make the 150 episodes and Rory’s depressing decline worth the watching.
RACHEL: I nominate you to write the next episodes! Whether the writers intended or not, they’ve depicted the pitfalls of fatherlessness.
SUSAN: The people who love us best bring out the best in us. She has yet to meet the man who loves her best. But I believe it’s possible she will.
RACHEL: Wow! Now there’s the story! Falling in love with the one who brings out the best in us! Find that man Rory!
SO THERE YOU HAVE IT!
Tell us what you think? Did you like the ending? Are you Team Logan, Team Jess, Team Rory Solo, or Team 4th Door? What is possible in the GG life? Were you happy with the shows? What did you love or dislike the most?
Chime in! The comment pool is feeling fine!
More information: Here’s an Entertainment Weekly interview with the GG show creators!
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Comments 31
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These are great insights, especially bringing us back into Christopher’s office. I remember thinking at the time ‘what’s the point of this scene? Just to give him a cameo?’ (But yes, he must be drinking from the fountain of youth. And yes, I see now the scene’s significance and need to rewatch.)
As a 34 year old woman I was so annoyed and repulsed with how Rory was portrayed- very immature and ‘me focused’. I just kept saying to myself: Pay a bill, sweetheart.
I’ve never like Logan, and definately would argue that Jess is the only one of the three who has grown as a character and that he is in fact ‘the Luke’. He is more true to deep down Rory, small town book reading girl. And he would be true to her, not keeping her as his mistress regardless of the circumstances or possible ‘arrangements’. (Although it was obvious Rory was Logan’s secret on the side- taking his phone calls out on the porch, etc.’) If Logan was really ready to commit to Rory and serve her, he could cut his daddy-dynasty bonds and make it happen. I don’t think he wants to though. He is currently having his cake and eating it too. He also enables Rory which I think helps with her life- paralysis we’ve seen in most of the revival.
In my ending, she has Logan’s baby, but Jess acts as the Dad. I think he could love her, encourage her, and serve her and that they could have the family Rory missed out on in her own childhood.
Final thought, #teamemily. I loved her character’s story line in this. 🙂
Author
Good thoughts Carrie. What do you think of Susan’s “4th door” where another man comes along for Rory. Not a Logan or a Jess but someone all together new who is her better-than-Luke? I like that idea. I love your “pay a bill sweetheart!” LOL So true.
Yes #teamemily!!
Maybe its cause I’m older, but I was more interested in Emily and Emily/Lorelai and even Lorelai/Rory than I was in Rory’s love life in GG 2.0. Actually now that I am thinking, I was always more interested in Lorelai’s life than Rory in the original too. Maybe I’ve always been “old” 🙂
“In my ending, she has Logan’s baby, but Jess acts as the Dad. I think he could love her, encourage her, and serve her and that they could have the family Rory missed out on in her own childhood.”
And yes to this too – it would be the family neither of them had. Redemptive and healing!
I Loved reading this, thank you for sharing. I was team Jess but after reading, I’m definitely Team 4th door, because after waiting so long for things that never took place in the this finale, and being thoroughly shocked by the Rory they gave us, I can do no less. I was super disappointed. All of your insights were good and helped me see things in a new and fresh way.
Author
Welcome aboard Mizzougirl!
Okay, this was a blast to read! I’m on an entirely different page regarding Logan, of course. I never cared for him and after the revival, I find him downright smarmy. But then again, Rory’s no better. I was sooooo annoyed with Rory through all of this. I miss the Rory of the first few seasons…the Rory who was focused and worked hard for what she wanted. She’s always been bad at relationships, it seems, but she used to at least have solid goals she was willing to work toward. BLERGH!
I have a bazillion more thoughts but I gotta run at the moment. Just wanted to say I enjoyed all the thoughts…even if i did disagree. LOL!
Author
Come back Melissa! Let us hear your thoughts. I think we all miss the sensible Rory. The time has passed for her to be the stupid college student. Why does she keep sleeping with me in committed relationships?!
I just don’t see how people can call Jess her “soul mate” when he didn’t even hug her when he walked into the paper. Shoot, Dean seemed more caring. 🙂
Anyway… it’s a question for the ages, I’m sure. Ha!
I really enjoy seeing others insights on the show. I’m still not team Logan, but Rachel’s thoughts on whom changed for the better certainly makes me rethink my viewpoint. I do have some thoughts I’d like to hear someone’s take on. I personally loved the ending. My friends, not so much. I may have missed this in the conversation and the comments, but how is the Wookie an option as a father? We don’t exactly know how far along Rory is, but wasn’t the one night stand in spring and the pregnancy announcement in the fall? She would be showing at almost four plus month pregnant correct? This is one of the questions we’ve been debating since we heard those final words. Whose baby is it? And is it possible that there’s more to the back story of Jess and the look he gave Rory? Is he the father? For all we know this new Rory (which honestly has been a struggle for me) wasn’t just hooking up with Logan, maybe she was having a side romance with Jess. She’s certainly changed from the person I had hoped to see. She’s not new to affairs and she is clearly flawed just like anyone else is flawed, but could there be more to the story? Other opitions we didn’t even know about? Wouldn’t that be quite a plot twist! Any thoughts on that possibility?
Author
Kayla, I think the ending had real life elements to it. And it’s up to us to imagine what their lives might be. I don’t think it’s the Wookee. I think it’s Logan’s.
It doesn’t seem likely she’d have a side romance with Jess. When he came to the paper she didn’t even stand up to hug him. They didn’t give us any hint of a romance between them. But they did lead us to believe Jess had feeling for her still. Which, again, goes to the “myth” of Rory. Why would he still have feelings for her 10 years later when they don’t seem to have any sort of relationship.
I think he should’ve been married with is own family! 🙂 ha!
I am Team Jess. While, he was selfish in his younger years, when Rory was sinking when she dropped out of Yale, he was there to pull her out. When Rory doesn’t know what to do next, he’s the one who suggested that she write a biography about her life with her mom. It’s almost like, it’s never the right time for them, but maybe someday it could be.
I do also hope that Rory recognizes the need for her child to have a father (most likely Logan). It’s a crazy thought to be sure. And I think we see that in the scene with Christopher.
Author
I hear you Christina but Jess is just being a good friend. He’s never really been there for her. I know it’s because the actor had other opportunities but Jess is not her soul mate. LOL. 😉
Thank you Melissa – SMARMY was what I thought of Logan the whole time. I wanted to like him even though I have always been a “Team Jess.” I did. I tried. But their interaction wasn’t love, it was more like the actions of a heroin addict who can’t let go. A soul mate doesn’t offer you a house like you are a geisha. A soul mate protects you even from yourself.
This is what I am even more “team Jess” after these new shows. He didn’t hug her – you are right. But it didn’t mean he didn’t want to. I think he was holding out protecting her as he could see that is not what she needed from him right then. To me, that is much more “Luke.”
I am not against the fourth door but I still think Team jess could happen down the road just like Luke and Lorelai had to be the right timing.
Word! All this! 🙂
And exactly what makes you so sure Jess isn’t her soulmate? Both are bohemian kindreds who shared similar backgrounds in terms of growing up ( only children, absentee dad etc.) . Both are loner types who prefer solitude to the lavish partying lifestyles and both live in a world of fiction. When she’s lost, its Jess who always brings her back. What makes Logan her soulmate? Because they have lots of sex? They sure didn’t seem to have much in common when they were together as a couple. She found him “exciting” until she had to carry him around after he’d get loaded with his friends. How exactly did Logan change? At the end when she refused to marry him, he took his ring back like the 5 yr old self entitled brat that he is and refused to even try to come up with a compromise. Logan didn’t change one bit. He’s still an a**hole. Rory deserves him because she’s trash and Jess deserves better. He’s the only character on the whole damn show who grew and changed.
Author
Vikki, I don’t think Jess is her soulmate because she chose the Yale, DAR, upper crust life instead of running away with Jess when he asked her to. I don’t see Rory as a bohemian at all. 🙂 But I could see how she and Jess had commonalities.
Logan as her soulmate… all the reasons stated in the blog. Logan did change for Rory. He grew up. Though yes, he acted out on occasion.
I’ll agree with you Jess deserves better. 🙂
Rory & Jess had more than just commonalities. They had the longest, qualitative buildup that she had with any of her boyfriends on this series. They had the best chemistry (somewhat subjective area, but still, it’s pretty well acknowledged & probably a result of their off screen romance), They actually had an attraction that was based on more than just the physical. They fell in love gradually as they got to “know” each other as people (“people are different once you get to know them”). How exactly did Logan “change” for Rory? He’s still an upper crust elitist who is going to marry a woman he doesn’t love and just cheat on her. Sounds like the same old Logan to me! Of course he grew up but we all do that. I’ll admit he changed somewhat for Rory but don’t ALL relationships “change” us in some way? And even if they change us for the better, it doesn’t mean that person was “the one”. At the end of this revival (which I disliked for many reasons btw), Rory did not choose Logan and his “upper crust” lifestyle. On the other hand you claim that Jess’ “growing up” wasn’t because of Rory because “she wasn’t around” but it simply was a result of growing up because it was bound to happen. However that’s not how Jess’s character sees it. He literally claims that if it wasn’t for her that he would have never been able to accomplish the things he did. It’s what ASP is claiming. It’s a significant scene for a reason! I agree with Rory’s decision not to run off with Jess since it was a half-baked idea concocted by a teenager, but that doesn’t mean she & Jess don’t belong together. It was a bad idea at that time. I totally disagree that Rory doesn’t have a bohemian side. Who does she have the biggest connection to in her life? Lorelai! Bohemian spirit or no? One doesn’t have to live a nomadic life to be a bohemian spirit. It’s a state of mind. One I believe Rory has been shown to have many times over. Maybe she’s torn between both of these worlds? She gave the other world a try and it didn’t seem to get her very far. She was ‘Lost’, in her own words. Since Dean & Logan both got 2nd, 3rd & even 4th chances and Jess never did, how about we see what could happen with those two now that the timing is better & Jess isn’t the little jerk he was before. Instead of being someone who’ll just sit around and listens to Rory whine all the time & just say “awww”, Jess seems to be the one that calls Rory out on her ‘bs’ and helps her find her way. Her character regression was terrible in this revival imo and regardless of the fact that I feel Jess deserves better, I’d be very interested to see how Rory & Jess could be now in a relationship. THEN we can truly decide who is “the one”! Sounds fair to me 🙂
I know I’m late to the party, but I’m so glad to have a place to discuss.
I’m a big GG fan and was so happy that everyone in Stars Hollow got a chance to go out the way ASP intended!
I see things a bit differently in terms of Rory. I believed that her character would be in the situation she’s in career-wise. I think Richard had a lot to do with it. The pressure to live up to his high expectations influenced her choices, like thinking she’s too good for the small town paper in the original series and then after her New Yorker success not being able to take any job that seems less (like the website). I think his death left her reeling even more.
I am not a fan of Jess or Logan, although after reading this post I can sort of get behind Logan :). My daughter and I actually think she should try and find Marty!
I would always love more GG – but I’m also good with the ending we got and just imagining how everything turned out 🙂
Author
Marty! Oh Chris, you had to throw another kink into the works. Good thoughts on where Rory would be… that Richard put a lot of pressure on her. Wow! This show can be so layered! But I never thought of that before but you’re right, Richard did put a lot of pressure on her. I’d love more GG too!
I’ve always been Team Logan. I think he was the right guy for Rory and not just for that period of her life. By the end of season 7 even if they separated I could imagine that they both needed time to grown up separately but in the end they would have met again and made it work for good. So, well, I wasn’t happy with they way Palladinos ended their relationship, basically with the same (if not worse) outcome of season 7 and writing both of them like they still were the Rory and Logan of season 5, not even the ones we left in season 7. And I hated that they basically ignored all the season 7 Logan’s development and also the fact that Logan was never willing to accept any dinastyc plan when it came to his love life. I found really disappointing and unfair to the character that they wrote him like that without any deep explanantion: being engaged to someone he didn’t love just because bussiness reasons (how? why?). I felt like they just “used” Logan to have Rory pregnant in the end and I felt like I wasted 3 seasons rooting for them and for him to finally set himself free from every dinastyc plan which was doomed to turn him into a sad Christopher.
Author
Pam, good points! Thanks for sharing. I feel like sometimes the writers try to be “like real life” where things don’t work out but we don’t want real life, we want Stars Hollow and GG. LOL. We want things to work out. 🙂
Author
Oh, good point about turning Logan into a sad Christopher.
TY TY TY Girls Finally someone other than Matt has the right idea about SOPHIE ship
OMG you pro Jess Sheeple must you crap on everything that is good about Logan seriously???!!! Was / is Logan perfect of course no has had the biggest growth arc in season 7 until ASP crapped on it and on Rory’s character development ASP is the biggest Anti Logan person ever and she ruined Beloved Logan . Jess was a friend she had a chance to be with Jess in season 6 and she said no I LOVE LOGAN !!! cheating part on Odette as bad as it is it is normal sometimes especially when you love some one as intensely as these 2 loved each other Matt even said Logan was waiting again like in partings for Rory tot ell him not to go . that is how he played the Dynastic plan scene int eh Tango club . he said the reason Logan and Rory can’t quit each other cause they love each other they just lack communication skills tot ell each other how they feel about each other again normal ASP character assassinated Logan for her own selfish lazy reasons because she was bent out of shape she got fired from the show she created so she basically ignored season 7 like she said she wouldn’t. Jess is not perfect Logan’s not perfect Rory is far far from perfect and i agree they regressed her to a childish selfish like Rory she never was SHAME on the Palladinos for writing and making this awful BS we fans deserved better even if Logan would not be the end game
First, I may be part of the “Jess Sheeple” as you call us but I totally agree with you. I hated what ASP did in this revival. None of the characters seemed to grow and even worse most of them regressed. You may be mad with how she portrayed Logan and if I was a Logan fan, I’d be mad to but believe us Jess Sheeple, she didn’t do him any justice either. She has him pining like a puppy dog over a girl who quite frankly isn’t worth pining over. He deserves better. The real winners here were the Team Dean people, his character got far, far away from Rory and lived HEA!
Author
Barb, wow. I wasn’t aware of all the backstory with ASP but agree totally the fans deserved better. 😉
Do you think they deserved better in terms of the Rory storyline or the whole revival?
Author
Mostly Rory story line but overall revival. Like, we didn’t need to go back to Chilton. We didn’t need a Paris tirade. We didn’t need all the singing episodes because that was never part of the story in the past. I’d have like more mature Rory and Lorelei. We didn’t need Rory treating Paul so horribly. 🙂
Does that make sense?
Rachel
Oh the singing! I think I blocked that part out! I am a musical theater fan too and I think that it was a huge waste of time. They could have spent more time with some of the other characters who didn’t get much screen time.
And the Paul thing (I really am blocking out the parts I hated) was just dumb. Supposed to be funny, but really not so much.
I didn’t mind Paris – I was sad that they went with a divorced story line with her though. It would have been cool to see her and Doyle being happy – the divorce thing seemed expected. I like when stuff happens that you don’t expect.
Yo. So I was a kid when Gilmore Girls aired… like maybe 7 years old. I watched the show “illegally” whenever my older, teenage sisters could sneak it on the upstairs TV (none of us were allowed to watch WB shows because they were all trash). So my memory of the show was spotty at best. I remembered Lorelai getting yellow daisies from some guy (it was Max, and I was super blown away) and someone getting married for like a day (it was Luke, and I was not impressed) and of course I remembered Luke and Lorelai kissing and Kirk screaming (seriously unforgettable). I remembered Rory crying over Dean at the dance when they broke up and Rory hooking up with Dean after he got married. I was team Dean for a long time. I always hated Jess. HATED him. He came along and ruined what Dean and Rory had (which may have been an immature small town romance, but HEY it was young love. They were teenagers, and it was sweet). Jess was never anything but trouble. He never tried. Then came Logan and I hated him almost as much as Jess. He was arrogant, rude, stuck-up, jerk, a [cute-faced] miscreant who made Rory be dangerous and kept hitting on Rory when she NEEDED to make her shaky relationship with Dean work–because even after that Lindsey fiasco, I thought they could put their heads on a little straighter and get it right. So yeah… Logan made a terrible first impression.
Now come to the present. I re-binged the series in preparation for A Year In The Life. AND MY GOODNESS. MY WORLD IS CHANGED. Well okay. I was still team Team Dean until season 4, and I was still Team Never Jess. I’ve come to realize that Dean was a good first boyfriend, but that he would never quite fit into Rory’s dream life. Even if he wanted to. And the poor guy really did. But then we came to Logan. I still thought I was gonna hate him. I don’t typically like the couples that can’t stand each other when they meet. And I felt really bad for Marty too because though he was a jerk later, he was a seemingly sweet guy. But this time, when I got to the match-making party, I was still annoyed with Logan… until Dean drives off forever and Logan changes completely. For the first time I notice his kindness. He’s not just doing what Jess did… trying to tempt Rory away from Dean. He had a heart too. So I started looking closer and I saw a hidden layer in Logan that I had never noticed. I saw how similar they were… I saw that underneath his flaws, he was still trying to find himself… to find freedom. I saw his intelligence and his wit, his honesty with Rory… The way he didn’t want to let her go, but she was free to make her own choices. Rory made him care more about life than he ever had before, and I saw him grow up because of it. The way he adored Rory was top notch. But after a rocky start, they also built a deep trust that even survived long-distance. It became one of the most mature ships GG ever gave us. I can’t believe I never saw it before. They could have taken on the world.
Even after the revival, since they’ve both become trash, I need to believe they’ll end up together? Odette is to Logan was Nicole was to Luke, what Max was to Lorelai… a bump.
Author
Victoria, YES! You get it. Maybe said it better than I did in my post. Logan changed! And yes, he’s still trying to find himself, wants to make his own decisions, choose his own path. And he and Rory are very similar! They were good for each other. Even when they were acting immature and jerkish.
“Odette is to Logan was Nicole was to Luke, what Max was to Lorelai… a bump.” EXACTLY! This is brilliant! 😉